I Will Protect You
by Parsley
Summary: FFIV. Edward had sworn to protect her with his life. He had never intended for her to do the same. Edward/Anna.


"Edward," she breathed, opening her tired eyes and inching closer to her beloved, handsome prince. His eyelids curtained over his dreaming green eyes and lips were slightly parted, quiet breaths escaping them. Edward looked peaceful to say the least. His face twitched at the warm touch of his lover Anna's hand brushing against his narrow cheek.

Anna smiled and kissed the nape of her prince's neck, waking the light sleeper and causing a small sound to escape his throat. Edward's listless eyes focused on his beautiful, young fiancée. With an inconspicuous trace of a grin, the prince pulled Anna into an easy hug under the warm covers, running his pale hands through her thick chestnut hair. No words had to be uttered; the soft-spoken lovers seldom shared even a friendly 'good morning'. Edward kissed the top of Anna's head, causing her to nuzzle up against his chest and close her eyes.

It was not an unusual morning. "My love," Edward hummed, embracing the delicate beauty closer while wiggling the two out of his burrowing covers. Edward peered out of the bleak tower window of the Damcyan castle, a trace of worry twinging in his mind. Anna chirred and listened to her lover's heartbeat, stroking his skinny, bare chest. A tired smile was etched across her face. The young prince stirred his gaze from the window. It was the late morning already.

Edward shifted himself to more restful position, carefully taking Anna with him while placing a gentle hand behind her head. He stared at his quarters' ceiling restlessly and closed his drooping eyes. The sun had risen long ago, but he could have stayed in his bed with Anna the rest of the day.

Anna scrunched away from Edward, wavering from his warmth. He opened his eyes again and let her go without hesitation. Anna leaned on top of Edward so that their faces were level. Edward smiled and let his hands loose to stroke her perfect, angel face.

"Is something troubling you, Edward?" her luscious voice inquired. Edward resisted the twinging urge to crash his lips against hers and forget about his troubles, but that would not be fair to his beloved. Edward lowered his gaze and he opened his tired eyes once more to find Anna's sweet face above him, staring at him with purity and innocence. A limp smile spread across his face.

Edward gently pulled Anna into a sitting position beside him. She stared at her lover with utmost concern. A bashful frown swallowed her features. "It is just a bad feeling. I'm sure it's nothing, my dear, but we should be careful."

It pained Edward to see his lover's face engulfed with distress. His eyebrows met. "Don't worry, my love, I will protect you," he whispered into her ear after brushing back locks of her hair. Edward kissed her cheek in assurance. After allowing the kiss to linger for a bit longer, Edward pulled his legs over the edge of the bed, letting the covers fall amply back down as he got up.

Anna watched him with adoration as he searched for his garments. Edward gracefully dropped to the ground and threw on his usual, baggy, orange bards' pants. They were too big around his waist, sagging. Anna watched her lover dress and eventually got out of his bed to put on her favorite yellow dress. She had worn it just for him the previous day, loving the adorable, taken aback blush that would always spread across his sullen cheeks before he took the hard effort to clear his throat and tell her she looked _divine_.

Although a mere deception, Edward was dashing in his bard's clothes. Anna approached him after dressing and stood on her toes, giving him a peck on the lips. Edward returned peck with a brief, but full-blown kiss. "What is it, my dear?" he asked, urging her to speak.

"I love -" Anna began, but was interrupted by an ear-splitting cannon-bade and creaking rattle of what seemed to be the castle shivering under the crucial, rude impact. On impulse, Edward had protectively clenched Anna to prevent her from falling over from the earthquake-like tremors. Anna gasped and clutched onto the prince. Her soft eyes widened.

The violent shaking and deafening booms got more intense and frequent in Damcyan Castle. Although surreal, it was apparent that they were under attack. Edwards eyes intensified to morbid fear and he pulled Anna to his bed once more nearly tripping over his own floor.

"Stay here, I'm going to find out what's going on!" Edward yelled over sickening noises of the bombings, a tremble escaping through his sharp words. Another tremor hit the castle and Edward fell to his knees. Luckily, he caught himself before crashing to the floor and found himself with a soft, frightened hand on his shoulder as he rose. Edward had to shut his eyes from the terrifyingly loud noise it made and gave Anna a glimmer of fear.

"No!" Anna shrieked. "I'm coming with you!"

"Anna... please stay here," Edward begged, not wanting to put his fiancée in any more danger than she already was. Screaming and barking commands could be heard from the lower floors of the tower. Edward tried to keep himself from panicking and bit his lip. Damcyan Castle being attacked seemed like a sick joke. The city's forces were top notch and the elite guard in the castle was superb. Anyone who dared look at Damcyan funny would be eliminated at first strike. Most of all, Damcyan had provoked no one. They had nothing to offer.

"It will be okay, my love," Edward cooed fearfully. He ignored the tremors and planted a passionate kiss on her forehead before sprinting off. Edward could only hope that his love would heed his words and stay in his quarters for the time being.

Without looking back, Edward grabbed his harp and hurried out of his quarters and down the winding castle stairway. There were windows on the cylinder tower walls and Edward peered regrettably out of the stone-carved squares to see who was attacking. He caught a horrifying glimpse of many proud banners signifying Red Wings air ships. There were too many to count and Edward continued to dash town the tower's stairwell. There was no time to think about why Baron's Red Wings were attacking Damcyan. Edward bit his lip and held back cowardice sobs.

Edward reached the bottom of the tower panting, but continued to run straight towards the royal throne room in the central part of the castle. He stopped briefly, but was encouraged to keep running seconds later by dooming bomb in the distance. Edward gasped for breath and stumbled on towards the king's hall.

When Edward reached his destination, all the noise from outside the castle seemed to stop. His heart searing in and was taunting to stop beating. Edward's eyes were wide and he knew that he was shaking. Nothing seemed coherent anymore. He scrambled to the throne, not knowing how fast or slow he was going. Time was distorted. Edward fell to his knees the ground in shock. "D-dad," Edward heard his wrangled voice breath. It was repeated over and over again.

The king if Damcyan, Edward's father, dead. He sat on the throne with an expression that was too early for shock. A sickening blade was cleanly through his heart and the blood had stopped oozing from the tattered skin. Edward stared with sheer disbelief and did not feel well. He got up stumbled his way towards his bleeding father, ignoring the violent tremors from the accursed Red Wings bombings. Maybe they were coming from his own body now. Edward could not tell. "Dad," was uttered until his voice was lost.

After what seemed like an eternity, Edward noticed two things. The first being that the sacred crystal bearing room behind the thrown had clearly been broken into. The Red Wings had come for the crystal and killed his father to get it. The second thing Edward noticed was that someone else had entered the throne room and had been shouting his name. Edward tore his frantic eyes off of his father and looked for the source, still shaking.

"Ed...ward!" he heard someone cry. It was gasped instead of shouted this time. He twisted around and his eyes widened in horror and surprise. He saw Anna and her beautiful swaying hair jump in front of him. She had followed him to the throne room after all. Anna was pushed back by a force of some sort and fell to the ground partially on top of Edward, who had fallen with her, too disoriented and overwhelmed to hold his own bearings. Edward had tried to catch hand looked across the room to find a masked Red Wing with a bow...

Just like that, time and undistorted reality snapped back to Edward like the cruel, blood-churning laughter of the devil. He coughed hoarsely in realization and felt his head-splitting observation kill his spirit twice over.

"ANNA!" Edward heard himself wail, sinking even more to the ground by his wounded lover. His green eyes swam with morbid panic horror as he tried to assess her injuries. Edward was shaking too much to do so. From what he could tell, the arrow that Anna had _shielded him_ from had left a fatal wound. Anna would not live. Edward wept and held his lover, disbelieving that it was all over. There was no way he could continue on living without her. It was all over.

"Is that... Anna?" an old but strong voice inquired, strung with alarm. The voice, however, did not register to Edward. He did not move or take his terrified gaze of of his dying fiancée. "You're that bard! Anna ran away because of your treachery!"

The old man thoroughly whacked Edward upside the head so hard that he could see stars. It then occurred to him that there were others there and that they were trying to hurt him. Tears sparked in his eyes and he clutched on to his dying love. Edward tried to tell his attacker to kill him quickly and to kill him no, but no such thing came. "You spoony bard!" the man shouted with rage. He was about to strike again. Edward could only hope that it was the blow that would finish his pathetic existence.

"Stop," Anna's weak voice rasped. It was feeble and broken, but still beautiful and alive, stung by the touch of death. Edward's dizzy eyes widened and he leaned in close to his lover.

"Anna," he whimpered, urging her to live by sending hoards of kisses to her cheek and down to her jawline. Anna stared up bleakly, her eyes drowned in pain.

"Oh, Anna! I'm so glad to see you again!" the old man cried, kneeling to the ground next to Anna. Edward's hands trembled upon holding her fragile, dying form. He would do anything to have her live through this, but he knew that she would not. Edward's heart sunk and he sobbed once more.

"Anna..." Edward repeated, breaking down into more violent sobs. He couldn't hold back anymore. He sorrowfully held his love tighter and cried into her chest. Nothing had mattered but Anna.

"Father," Anna rasped, staring at the old man with pain in her concentrated, pretty eyes. Edward silenced himself with great effort, feeling his lips part and quiver. "Edward is the prince of Damcyan. Forgive him, father, for running away with him... but I love him. Still, I knew I couldn't find happiness without your consent, but..." Anna trailed off in pain.

Edward composed himself enough to finish for her. "We were attacked by Baron's Red Wings," he whispered, more to himself than to Anna's father. The thought was foreign. He could barely believe it himself. Edward did not tear his eyes from Anna and stroked a lock of her chestnut hair with his weak hand.

"Why did they attack Damcyan?" another voice asked. Edward had not noticed that there were others in the room besides Anna, himself, and the girl's father. All he could see right now was Anna.

Edward cleared his throat. He was surprised by how well he was holding up in the nightmarish situation and spouting information. Edward felt dead. "The crystal. They spared no one to get it. Anna... shielded me from their arrows."

Edward was supposed to be the one protecting Anna, not the other way around. Edward blinked painfully and a shaky sob escaped him.

The old man looked baffled. Edward's heart sunk once again and he furrowed his brow in pain. "You love him enough to give up your own life?"

"Father, forgive me..." Anna whispered, voice choked with pain. Her eyes started to flutter and her breaths shallowed.

Edward clutched her in alarm. "Anna! I love you," he cried, staring in disbelief at his dying lover. She did not respond. Anna had already passed on, unable to bear the pain of clutching onto her life any longer. "Anna!" Tears spilled freely from his eyes now.

"Stop your simpering. That won't bring Anna back!" Anna's father bellowed. He tried not to look at the painful scene of his dead daughter. "I will avenge her death," he growled. The old man got up and stormed out of throne room. Edward remained, crying his heart out into the fading warmth of his past lover's chest.

* * *

A/N: There you have it. The depressing story of Edward-o and Anna-et. Only with less satirical miscommunications and one less death. (And less of a masterpiece that anything Shakespeare could dream up.)

As you can see, I left in Tellah's notorious 'spoony bard' line. XD I hope that didn't throw off Edward's horrified little mourn. I was going to write up to the part with Cecil bitch-slapping him in the telling him to pull himself together, but as much as I love that spoony bard, I found that hilarious. It didn't fit with this story.

By the way, why did they mash Final Fantasies I - VI into one category? That makes me sad... Anyway, thank you** Mind Seeker** for betaing this. :)

All feedback is welcome~


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